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tv   MSNBC Live  MSNBC  December 16, 2012 12:00pm-2:00pm PST

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point in the next hour or so? >> we're supposed to find out a few more details about the shooter in those final moments and exactly what was going on in that school. we have heard, of course, how investigators have said that he had shot his way through the windows to gain access to that school. they have been processing the school scene for the last two days. that school remaining closed as other schools in the surrounding area go back into session again this week. but certainly investigators have had a challenge on their hands trying to figure out a possible motive, a possible link to this school. a possible reason that the shooter would have come here to target all of those children, in addition they're also trying to figure out a little bit more about adam lanza's background. of course he also shot his mother in the hours before he apparently came down to the
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school, barged in, of course shooting 20 children and six teachers and school employees in that area. and craig, in the meantime, this community as you mentioned is mourning and the president will be here later tonight to help with that, but this community has certainly rallied around win another. the families of course attending many of those services throughout this sunday morning. as they have these last few days. and taking comfort in one another, taking comfort in a place of solace and a place of worship wherever they choose. >> connecticut's governor dan malloy told abc news this morning that speedy action by first responders may have very well prevented an even worse tragedy. take a listen. >> we surmise that it was during the second classroom episode that he heard responders coming and apparently at that decideded to take his own life. >> what else, michelle can you tell us about those final
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moments before adam lanza decided to kill himself? >> reporter: well, those are certainly the detailsa we're hoping that we'll learn about, perhaps at this press conference or in the coming days, exactly the length that adam lansa had to this school, in fact what happened, perhaps they'll have a little bit better timeline. when first responders and law enforcement arrived on scene, they arrived to a very active shooter situation, a very chaotic situation and of course what was left behind is just devastating in terms of what they had to cope and deal with in terms of not just the emotions of this, but also processing that crime scene. so that they're say whether take the most time. >> the stories of heroism that happened inside sandy hook
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elementary school. the teacher who for all intents and purposes risked her life in an attempt to save the lives of her children there. and i do want to call our viewer's attention to the left side of the screen here, president obama who is at andrews air force base, the president expected to hop on a plane to take air force one over to newtown, connecticut to take part in a vigil tonight. he'll be meeting with first responders, he'll also be meeting with family members of some of the survivors there. as you can see president obama making his way to air force one. kristen well welker who's standing by to travel with the president. what can we expect to hear from president obama tonight? >> reporter: as you mentioned, president obama is going to start off by meeting with the folks who were most affected by
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this tragedy as he arrives in newtown, connecticut. he'll be speaking with family members and first responders here at newtown high school. he said his comment also focus on the victims, on the lives lost. this is becoming an all too familiar path for this president. this will be the fourth time he will have spoken to a community that is reeling in the wake of a gun massacre. just this summer, he went to a aurora, colorado in the wake of the shooting there. last year, it was tucson, arizona, in 2009, it was ft. hood, texas. too many lives lost in all of these incidents, of course what makes this unique is so many young children were lost. so president obama will be comforting this community as commander in chief and also as a father. before he left he attended sasha's dance recital, so spent
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some family time this afternoon before he comes here to offer words of comfort to this community. i have been speaking to folks throughout this community are still in shock, still really grieving, even if their families weren't personally impacted, people who still have tears in their eyes, craig. so they are going to welcome the president's visit, certainly, all of them right now in need of comfort, all of them right now just trying to support each other through this incredibly difficult time. >> until you rattled off that list there, kristen, i hadn't even, i guess i hadn't realized that, you're right, this is the fourth time that president obama has had to make a speech similar to the one he is going to have to make tonight. again, a couple days ago, the president talked about meaningful action at this point. have we heard anymore about what the president might have meant by those words, any more in terms of some sort of legislation that might be introduced? >> reporter: well the white house is holding off on talking about policy right now. but if you look at some of what
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president obama has said in the past, he's talked about the fact that he supports reinstating the ban on assault weapons, he has talked about the need for specific background checks for people who are buying guns and also talked about the need to enact better prevention methods, to make sure that people get better help and that -- president obama has spoken about. of course there has been some report this is morning about the justice department was looking at trying to enact some of these at least in the form of legislation, these are things that the president has been talking about for quite some time, but no legislation has been offered at this point. will we see some change? i can tell you that a lot of democrats are really putting the pressure on president obama to do something, to followthrough with the words he spoke on friday in the hours after this unspeakable tragedy.
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>> kristen welker in newtown, connecticut who's ahead of the president. president obama set to be there throughout the afternoon and the evening as well. kristen, we'll come back to you a little bit later. the tragedy in connecticut has reignited the debate in this country over gun control. president obama promising once again, quote, meaningful action. new york city mayor, a staunch gun control advocate, michael bloomberg who endorsed president obama for presidency, says the issue is his now. >> the president campaigned in '08 on a gun control began, and the only legislation that the president has signed since then, one is the right to carry a gun in national parks where our kids play, and one is the right to carry guns on amtrak. i assume that's to stop the rash of train robberies which stopped back in the 1800s.
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>> joining me now is jonathan -- i want to put a null screen here, this is from the president of the brady center, and he said this in part, i won't read everything there, but he said in part, we genuinely believe this one is different. it's different because no decent human being can look at a tragedy like this and be outraged by the fact that it can happen in our nation and because this time we're really poised to harness that outrage and create a focused exchange. we know that the outrage and the sadness unfortunately, it will dissipate. how do you harness it this time? >> well, even before this shooting happened, we were seeing more and more americans speaking up on this issue, engaged in this national conversation about sensible
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solutions to our gun violence problem and demanding action from our leaders. i was on this network on thursday, actually, i was saying exactly the same thing before the shooting. so we have a website wearebetterth wearebetterthanthis.org. >> "meet the press" this morning, senator dianne feinstein says she's going to be introducing legislation to reenstate the bachb on assault weapons, like that rifle that was used friday. that ban of course expired in 2004. i'm going to take a look at what she said and talk about it on the other side, here she is. >> i'm going to introduce in the senate and the same bill will be introduced in the house, a bill to ban assault weapons. it will ban the sale, the
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transfer, the importation, and the possession, not retroactively, but perspectively. and it will ban the same for big clips, drums or strips of more than ten bullets. >> dianne feinstein's from california, michael bloomberg is from new york city. a lot of the calls for gun control legislation in this country are coming from folks who are in urban areas, talk to me a little bit about to the difficulty in the past, the difficulty that you have had convincing some lawmakers in rural parts of this country, to take up your cause. >> well, i want to talk about some of the agreement first. because the american people agree on this issue much more than our leaders in congress. i mean 74% of nra members and gun owners support having background checks for all gun sales. right now, only 40 -- sorry, 60%
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of gun sales take place with a background check. so we have huge disagreement there among gun owners, nongun owners, blue states, red states, we need to see that sort of agreement on capitol hill. the people are there, we need to follow the will of the people. >> i do think sometimes there's a tremendous chasm on how guns are viewed in places like chicago, new york and california, how they're viewed in versus how they're viewed in places like i'm from in south carolina, or in rural places like newtown, connecticut. >> i think it's true that there is some disagreement, but what i'm saying is there's also a lot of agreement and a lot of things that we can do which would save a lot of lives, because another thing that we have to do, a massacre like this, causes us all to confront the specter of gun violence that happens every
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day, often in shootings that don't make the national news. so we need to look for solutions that would prevent a vast number of those shootings, maybe not some of these mass shootings, but would save a lot of lives, and background checks for all gun sales, that's one, it's a no-brainer, there's broad support for it and i think that's the sort of thing that congress could support and the president would sign. >> jonathan laurie, thank you very much. prooesht your time. >> thank you. we are going to take a quick break, when we come back, we're going to talk to one of the senators from connecticut about where we go from here. also troubled kids, how to spot them, and how to talk to our children in the wake of tragedy. stay with us.
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president obama will arrive in newtown, connecticut. just about an hour ago, we saw him leaving from andrews air force base. we're going to see him at a vigil tonight where he is expected to offer wobds of comfort for that grieving community. he is expected to spend some time talking to the first responders there in newtown, connecticut also talking about the survivors as well. jared, we're told that a number of other advisors along with jay cornyn. one of the officials that will join the president is senator
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richard blumenthal that joins us from newtown, connecticut. first of all, let's start with how the town is doing, how is the community coping 48 hours after this horrific crime. >> the pain here is really still very real and deep and very much on the surface. i have been at the firehouse again today, i have been here for the past, this is my third day and a church service this morning, a lot of hugs, tears and very real and deep emotion. people are coming back, the ties are very real, but the ties are the result of the fact that everybody knows everyone in this town. and so everybody feels the grief and the loss. so the town will rebuild, there's a lot of strength, resoluteness, determination. and just still very emotional. >> i want to switch gears here and talk about how we can perhaps prevent tragedies like
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this. you were connecticut's attorney general for 20 years, earlier this morning i heard you plan on going in front of the senate to address the issue of gun control, specifically high capacity magazines like the ones that were used on friday. is this a crime? is it a crime that's preventable? >> well, i think we need to recognize that this horrific incident of inhumane cruelty, really should spur and transform the national discussion on this issue as was pointed out earlier on the show, the president now is addressing for the, maybe fourth time, this kind of incident. this one particularly brutal, because it involves 20 children who were going to school to make
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ginger bread men, and i think certainly there are measures that ought to be part of that debate, whether it's the ban on assault weapons, high capacity magazines, ammunition in general. this killer went to the school with enough ammunition to kill pretty much everyone there and only to the arrival of the ener emergency responders, very courageously entering that school led him to kill himself and stop the slaughter. so we need to look at the gun violence, prevention efforts that we made in the past, learn from them. connecticut has a gun violence law. and an assault weapon ban, but we need to do better. >> what about the mental health component of all of this? there is a picture that is starting to be painted of the shooter here, it appears at least that he had some type of personality disorder. what more can we be doing for folks like this?
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what can we do for parents who have unstable children that they can't control. >> connecticut has a mem health outreach effort, which certainly could be enhanced and increased. we have enforcement efforts that could receive more resources, you know, we tend to focus on new laws, but some of what has to be done is better enforcement of the laws that we have right now with more resources to those police and the atf and other agencies that have their mission as prevention of this kind of crime. but the mental health outreach and treatment certainly is an area that can be improved with additional resources to identify people before they enter into this kind of rampage, which certainly has disastrous results for the whole country. >> one of the things that struck me this morning on "meet the
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press," mayor bloomberg contends that the nra, the national rifle association, that its power perhaps has been overstated. is that accurate? is the nra not as powerful as many folks have said that they are? >> you know, i want to tell you, craig, my focus is on newtown, the grief, the families who have been stricken, the community that's recovering. i think we can put aside the politics for today and maybe try to really cut through the political divides that have been so very, very difficult to overcome. and kind of reach common ground because we have more in common than in conflict when it comes to protecting people, particularly our children. and i want to seek that bipartisan common ground. >> okay. >> and reach across the aisle and try to bring all the sides together. >> senator richard blumenthal,
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democrat from connecticut. senator thank you so much and be well, sir. i want to focus on the very latest in the investigation into the shooting and what we're learning now about the gunman. michael isikopf who's learning more about the shooter. >> reporter: we spoke to more friends of nancy lanza, the mother, who talked about her avid gun collection, how she used to go for target practice at local shooting ranges, and also how concerned she was about her son. one friend said that nancy lanza told her that her son did suffer from asberger's which is a mild
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form of autism. and another friend was concerned that he was a recluse that he never left home. he was also a social recluse. in the last hour i have heard that he did take some part tame college courses online from a local university and did quite well as a student, so he clearly was a bright, and he also was clearly disturbed. >> mike, thanks as always, do appreciate that. president obama headed to connecticut once again, headed to connecticut at this hour. he is going to be meeting with the families of the victims. even as he feels pressure to take action on gun control. we'll talk a little bit more about that. we'll also spend a fair amount of time talking about the mental health component of all of this as well. you are watching msnbc. [ male announcer ] when ziggy the cat appeared at their door,
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hollying holding a parent meeting many of the leaders of the building were around the table. we heard gunshots and we knew exactly they were gunshots. and immediately the leaders in our building did what they needed to do and they ran out of the door to go take care of the situation. the remaining people in the meeting room, there was about probably six or seven of us, we gathered under the tables. and just listened to nonstop gun fire happening right outside the door. knowing that that gun fir showering the hallways and the classrooms and it was nonstop. we kept holding tight, we kept praying and kept paying for the firing to stop. at least ten minutes, it was
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nonstop and it kept happening and happening, we thought it was over and then it started again. we huddled back over the table and we slid the cell phone across the room and we were able to call our loved ones. >> you took turns making phone calls with that one phone. >> i know your meeting started at 1:30, it was about 2:00 i finally looked at somebody and said does somebody know what time it is? i have no idea how long it all happened. >> one of the chilling accounts from inside sandy hook elementary friday morning. one of the people in that building talking to matt lauer. with will ask what will we do next when it comes to guns and protecting the innocent and mental health in this country, we'll talk about all of those things right after this. [ female announcer ] want younger looking eyes that say wow
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that is just one of the many memorials that has sprung up around newtown, connecticut. right now, again, president obama on his way to that tiny new england town, just boarded air force one a few moments ago at andrews air force base. he will arrive in connecticut in about an hour, then he'll head to some private meetings with victims' families. then he'll spend some time talking to the first responders. earlier today we found out from governor dan malloy, if it had not been for those first responders, the tragedy could have been far worse. we're now hearing that house speaker john boehner has made a new officer to president obama to raise tax rates on incomes of more than a million dollars,
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instead of the $250,000 that president obama wants. nbc news white house correspondent peter alexander joining me now live from 1600 pennsylvania after. . what else can you tell us about the president's offer. >> reporter: the president is on his way right now and the flags here at the white house are still at half staff, if nothing else what that shooting has done is soften the tone in the back and forth between the white house and house republicans, specifically speaker john boehner as you know right now, sources close to those fiscal cliff talks confirm that basically what this comes down to, the president agreeing to what would be effectively $1 trillion in revenue. the president, that means basically new taxes and other elements to go alongside that. the president wants like $1.4 trillion and what it really means to a lot of americans is that the bush era tax cuts would
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expire for those making more than a million dollars. i talk to a source a short time ago which referred to this as progress, but said there's still more work to do, but the lines of communication however are open. it was only hours after the president gave those words about the shooting in newtown that speaker boehner made that proposal. back to the tragedy in newtown, connecticut, it is of course renewing calls for gun control, more gun control in this country as we mentioned earlier, senator dianne feinstein of california said she will introduce legislation next month that will ban the type of assault rifles that was used in the the shooting at sandy hook elementary school. christina belantoni political
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director, we have of course heard the calls for gun control before kristen welker at the top of the hour, noting that this was the fourth time that the president has had to address a group of grieving family members after mass shootings. but nothing ever seems to get done after one of these types of shootings. a lot of folks right now, bill schneider, though, are saying this could very well be the tipping point. what do you think? >> i think it could well be the tipping point. this involved children, 6 and 7-year-old children, innocent children, involved a person who clearly was disturbed and it involved the easy availability of guns. if this doesn't do it, what could we possibly be waiting for. members of congress are skiddish about this because they know what happened when they passed a gun control bill. millions of gun owners and gun advocates came out to vote
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against them in 1994. what gun control advocates have to understand is if you don't vote for gun control, we're going to come after you this time and that's a serious threat. >> during the interview on met the press, new york city michael bloomberg said that he thinks perhaps the national rifle association's status as has been a bit overstated, what say you to that? >> well, it carries enormous weight in washington when you look at the amount of money the nra spends to lobby congress, members of both parties, on k-street, a lot of money to influence elections across the country, not just in these last fall elections, but particularly in the 2010 midterms. they're influential in that way, but it is a moment as bill said for congress to look at this. and also for the white house to make decisions, there's a number of things that the president could choose to do through executive order. you're not hearing any discussion of that at this point while the grief is so raw and so
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poignant. who knows what's going to happen here? as bill points out there's been so many tragedies like this and there could be a moment where you look at the timing politically. the president has just won the election so there's no worries for him. but the midterm elections are coming up while many democrats fear losing their seat, many democrats represent more liberal districts and republicans represent conservative districts. >> we brought this up earlier in the broadcast, and i want to bring it up again with you, the perception of guns in this country seems to depend on where you live. and lawmakers as well, lawmakers that represent urban areas and unurban areas versus lawmakers that represent more rural areas, is the chasm wide between those two areas in terms of how guns are viewed? >> yes, it is very wide and it's
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not just the red states and the blue states. vermont which is one of the b w bleweble blew -- bluest interstates in the country. i remember when howard dean ran for president. he's the liberal's liberal. the gun control bill was very hard to pass. harry reid is from nevada, a western state where gun control is not very popular and he champions the nra in his politics. so it's not simply red and blue. >> christina, so much talk devoted to gun control in the morning shows today and it's going to dominate the discussion over the next few weeks. there's not been as much p talk about mental health in this country and the picture that continues to emerge of this shooter is a picture that we have become all too familiar with, according to michael isikopf he had very few friends,
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perhaps had a personality disorder. >> a lot of those services have been cut back in the last few decades, as everybody's budgets are cut tighter and tighter, at state level, county level, this happens and you look at the prison system in different states and how expensive that is and ways that people are not getting treatment there. you can talk about drugs, and there are a lot of different kinds of elements and a lot of that has to do with money. this isn't just about the assault weapons ban. there's many things that the members of congress could be considering, that the white house could be considering. there's a story out today that the justice department was recommending a more thorough background check procedure. and legislative elections have a lot of consequences. i covered virginia politics for
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years and they debate gun laws that have a dramatic effect in a lot of different places. >> thank you both very much for your time this afternoon. amid the tragedies, that are some stories of heroism, but still we are searching for answers about how to protect the smallest among us. we'll talk about that after this. you ever notice that some people just have a knack for giving the perfect gift? they put real thought into it. and find just... the right...thing. how do they do that? more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. pick up a ridgid jobmax multi-tool starter kit and get a free head attachment.
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glimpse of it too. i want to bring in doctor irwin redner. and also a clinical psychologist robin goodwin thanks for joining me once again. for folks who may not have been watching yesterday. what should parents of small children who may have seen some coverage and have been asking some questions, what should parents be telling their kids? >> i think first you just have to start a conversation, you may say, you may have heard that something happened at a school, what have you heard? so you want to listen, and then you want to talk to them in a way that's appropriate to their age and then you want to fill in the blanks based on what their fears and questions are. >> you talked to congress in the wake of the 2000 massacre at virginia tech and you said that there is ebl essentially no unfailing way to prevent something like this from happening. if that's true, then what are we left to do? >> we're left to do a couple of
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things. first of all, we have to stop the flow of dangerous weapons that are in our population in extraordinary numbers right now. i don't know what we're going to do about the backlog of weapons that are already there. eventually we're going to have to deal with that. but what we can do is really pay attention to security issues at school, access to the school itself, although this was a violent entry, we now know up in connecticut, there's a lot of things we can do to help beef up the ability of schools to protect themselves. every school in the country should have well thought out plans for what they do in the case of emergencies, where they drill and exercise what they're supposed to do and every child knows what will happen in an emergency. those things certainly could minimize and mitigate the impact of tragedies like this. >> doctor goodwin, there's been
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a lot of speculation about the gunman, the gunman's parents we know were divorced, the mother had a passion for the guns that were used in the massacre, reportedly belonged to his mother. what role could the family dynamics have played in part of his actions? >> >> we have to be very careful not knowing the specifics of what's in his mind. we don't always know what's inside someone's mind and we want to do what we can now about kids. so kids that have witnessed it or heard about it, you want to talk to them about their mental health. you want to get them express how they feel. don't talk about details, but talk about how they feel. get connected to your child. especially if your child has a problem down the road. >> how would you characterize the options out there for
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parents who have troubled children, mentally troubled children, options out there for those parents if they have suspicions? >> sure. well, first of all i would typically say that the access to mental health services is very limited in the united states and that's especially true for families without a lot of resources, without a lot of money, without insurance and so forth. in this case, however, we haven aberration, we have a young man, a very disturbed man, but from an obviously or parentally a very affluent family that should have been accessed. the question is were there people around him aware and acting in terms of making sure this child, when he was younger got the attention that he needed and was he getting treatment? there's a lot that we have to learn. we don't even know if there was a drug issue on top of whatever issues he was dealing with before hand. so there's a lot that's going to unfold here. but at the end of the day, making sure that there's no stigma attached to recognizing that a person has a mental
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health challenge -- >> i've got to cult you off here, there's a news conference that's getting under way in newtown, connecticut, we are expected to get some new information from the police spokesman there. let's take a listen. let's listen in. >> the chief state medical examiner has provided more information on the deceased. the mother was found at a second scare location. identified as nancy lanza. her birthdate is september 6th, 1960. her cause of death is multiple gunshot wounds, and the death has been ruled a homicide. the male subject identified as the shooter at sandy hook elementary school has been positively identified as adam lanz ashe. he resided at that residence. his cause of death was gunshot wound, and his death has been ruled a suicide. there's been questions about the weaponry, and i'd like to take a minute to discuss with you
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briefly very superficially some of the information that can be released at this time. the weapon that was utilized most of the time during this horrific crime was identified as a bushmaster ar-15 assault-type weapon. it had high-capacity mag scenes. in addition to that, the subject had in his possession a glock .10 millimeter, a sig sauer .9 millimeter. both weapons have multiple magazines and additional ammunition. the fourth weapon recovered was a shotgun recovered from the suspect's vehicle parked outside of the school that. weaponry is going, as i said, is going to be completely xmd in the forensic laboratory. it's going to be historically searched so we can attempt to determine every path that those weapons took since they were manufactured. every time that they were used and as much information as possible that we can obtain relative to each and every
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weapon. the last thing, and i would just like to restate what we stated this morning about anyone that harasses, threatens or intimidates or interferes with the investigation utilizing any social media of any type relative to this horrific crime will be fully investigated and fully prosecuted to the extent of the law. we're talking about harassment includes in-person contact but also contact on the internet, social media, telephone or any other means of communication. we, again, are asking and imploring members of the media to please respect the family's prif sis. we are continuing to staff a trooper as a conduit or a line of communication to assist the families, all 26 families in this incident, and we'll do so
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per the colonel of the state police indefinitely. i'll take a couple of questions. again, understanding that there are certain things that we still cannot answer and cannot discuss. >> can you tell us what happened with the threat of the church this afternoon. >> there was in fact a threat at the ste. rose church here in newtown. the church, everything is taken extremely seriously. the church was evacuated as a precaution. it was thoroughly searched, as was the rectory, and we've initiated a criminal investigation working with newtown police in connection with this incident. i have no further details. i don't know the content of the threat, but suffice it to say that we treat these kinds of instances as serious crimes. they are investigated as such, and if the prerp traitor of that is identified that investigator will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. >> was there a phone call. who did the phone call go to?
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>> that's as much information i have. >> was it a phone call, can you just tell us that. >> yes. >> lieutenant, you talked about the bushmaster was used most of the time. can you give any details as to, first of all, what weapon nancy lanza was shot with, and second of all, did he use the handguns at all at the school? >> i do not know the weapon that nancy lanza was shot with. i don't know that. the bushmaster was used, as was explained yesterday in the school in its entirety, and the handgun was used to take his own life. >> and as a followup, can you tell me about the bullets fired from the bushmaster, was there any ricochet out of them? >> the trajectory of the shots and of all -- all of the ammunition used in this horrific crime will be examined and thoroughly reported in the report. i don't have that information to be able to speculate. >> multiple magazines? >> that's correct. >> high capacity, multiple high
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capacity magazines. >> how many rounds? >> approximately 30 rounds per magazine. >> how many magazines? >> several, just numerous. >> like hundreds of bullets. >> hundreds of bullets, yes, yes. >> are those 30 rounds per magazine just for the rifle or also the hand gun? >> high capacity mag zone for the rifle, all right, and multiple magazines for the rifle, and multiple magazines for both handguns. >> lieutenant, is there any indication that the teachers used their bodies to protect the children. >> i don't want to state that. i'm sure they did everything they could, but i don't want to get into that specific detail if i can at this point. >> what's your information as to motor sniff. >> again, motive, as i discussed earlier. that will come as we finish the investigation. we simply can't piece meal it. we don't have a specific reason that we can stand here and say this occurred. we will, and we are searching diligently and non-stop to answer that question. >> did the shooter take his own life as police were coming at him? >> the timeline is being established by investigators. that's the best i can do with
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that. >> may we ask a point of clarification. will the newtown schools remain closed all week, and i think you were able to say was that the school building itself is still -- >> that's correct. we're still working with the superintendent of schools to do what's best. obviously it's an emotional time. the plan right now is still up in the air. they are finalizing the plans, and we'll get that information out to you as soon as possible. >> is it safe to say that the newtown schools will be closed for this week? >> as i said, it's still to be determined. >> yeah. >> do we know how many shots were fired yet? >> that's impossible to say. we do know how many rounds we've recovered. we do know how many shell casings we've recovered. i don't have that information to publicly give out just yet. i'd be speculating and guessing. >> how much of the magazines were empty? >> numerous -- again, that's -- that's all investigatory information that i'm not privy to. i simply don't have that to give
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>> you do you know how many bullets were unspent? >> many, many, hundreds. >> he had plenty left. >> hundreds, yes, sir. >> hundreds on him that he had not used yet. >> correct, correct. sir. >> which weapon was used to kill his mother? >> i don't know that. i don't know that. >> lieutenant, has anything changed with the president's visit as a result of this? >> the president of the united states is attending memorial service tonight, and he is coming to -- to the town of newtown. >> what is the security and access going to be like for that, for the public and also for the media? >> yeah. again, we don't discuss the security for the president of the united states. suffice it to say that significant security will be in place as is always the case when the president makes the visit anymore. >> lieutenant, has a time frame for miss lanza's death been established? >> no, sir, no, sir. >> no time at all? >> no time frame has been determined. >> who is invited to the memorial? >> are you making progress in determining the motor sniff.
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>> certainly we're pleased with the work that's been done so far. i'm hoping that that helps answer that question. we're pleased with the progress that we're making. this is a very long, tedious process which i've stated. it's going to take many, many man hours, okay, to attempt to draw this picture together, to put this puzzle together. the minute we have it, our objective here is to make sure that you, the members of the public, receive that information as quickly and officially as possible, but to state right now that we have a motive, that we have a motive we're prepared to discuss publicly cannot happen. we just do not have that information. >> can you go into any information about the detail who saved the children by putting into the -- the children into a closet? >> no, i would, again, i don't want to discuss the crime scene at all. >> what did you recover from his home, computer, notebooks? >> did seize a great deal of evidence. our detectives have executed numerous search warrants in this case. we do not detail the content of
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what we seize in any criminal investigation. can i tell you that we were successful in seizing a great deal of evidence in this investigation. all that evidence, every stitch of it, needs to be analyzed, and it will be, whether it's in our forensic laboratory or by specialists within our department or other departments as time goes on. we anticipate this is going to be the last discussion today where the president coming in. we've got a great deal on our plate. if anything, if anything additional should surface between now and tomorrow morning, okay, we will post it on our website, on the state police website, but we do not anticipate anything of a public nature to arise, but should it arise i would suggest check our website on a regular basis. we'll come back tomorrow morning. we'll be here by -- shoot for 9:00. we want to keep you updated as much as we possibly can. by tomorrow morning we'll have an idea as to hopefully some of the school questions here in the community. we'll be in contact with the superintendent and hopefully some additional investigatory
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information we can provide for you. all right. thank you. good afternoon. >> could you trace that phone call? >> we're working on that. we're working on that. >> lieutenant paul vance there with the connecticut state police giving what's going to be the final news conference of the day. just a few highlights there. again, first of all, the motive. at this point still not determined. lieutenant vance saying the motive will come as they continue the investigation. they were very pleased with the amount of information and evidence they have been able to gather so far. he also said, as you probably heard, hundreds of rounds of bullets, hundreds of bullets were used. hundreds of bullets remained on his person as well. the shooter still had lots of ammunition left. a bushmaster ar-15 with a high capacity magazine was the primary weapon, according to lieutenant vance there. there was also a .10 millimeter glock and a sig sauer, .9
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millimeter. those three guns were found next to the shooter inside the classroom, we understand. there was also a shotgun that was recovered from the trunk of his vehicle in the parking lot as well. i want to bring in criminologist james foxx also an msnbc analyst as well. you heard the news conference there. based on the information that you just heard, can we glean any more about the shooter? >> only about the level of planning that was involved to assemble that kind of arsenal of not just weapons but ammunition. this was something he clearly planned for some time. i doubt it was -- we had heard about an altercation the day before. >> right. >> this has been brewing perhaps longer. we do know we tried to get a gun on tuesday and was deterred. this was not a sudden decision on his part. >> again, i don't want to generalize or stereotype, and i don't want you to have to speculate here, but take us, if you can, inside tof someone who
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might do something like this, because a lot of folks were watching and listening, wanting to be able to, you know, if there are warning signs out there, they want to be able to identify those. >> well, let me point out that the warning signs are not reliable. they are only yellow flags that turn red after the fact. after the fact we can see them all. there is a typical profile, and in this case it fits in many regards. you have someone who is isolated, socially isolated. doesn't have a lot of support systems in his life and doesn't have people around him to put perspective. mass murderers are generally bitter, angry. they want revenge. they want to get even, and they blame others for their problems. now, to distinguish someone from a person who commits suicide and then homicide-suicide, not only are they so miserable this they are ready to die, but they feel that they need to get some sense of vengeance by killing other
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people and taking them with them. now, i know you want to predict and look around, parents want to see in their kids. you can't do that. it's really literally impossible to identify mass murderers in advance. what we can tell and parents can tell when their kids need assistance and need help and cowbell couns counseling, but can't predict they are going to be mass murderers. >> for more now and the new details involving the massacre, let's go straight to nbc's jay gray who is standing by in newtown. jay, what more can you tell us? >> reporter: well, craig, i think what you've said is very true, and what everybody has been talking about here, but i think it's important to point out there's been so much misinformation involved with this case that we're finally beginning to learn some of the very basic specifics here. we know that the accused gunman, adam lanza, did carry not only a semiautomatic weapon but two
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high-powered pistols and he shot his way into the school, so the security system was set up was there. he just simply avoid that had by using this weapon to blast his way into the elementary school. we're also hearing this talk about them pursuing these malicious and false posts online. and what they are talking about, and i'm quoting, misinformation from people coming posing as the shooter or using other. i.d.s mimicking the crime and the crime scene on the heels of the information that there was a threat phoned into one of the churches during a noon mass, that just really indicates the level of problems that they continue to face in this community, and so it's hard to imagine all of these people who are mourning and trying to join together in a place of faith, having to be evacuated by s.w.a.t. teams with automatic weapons themselves with some
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type of malicious threat so that is compounding the problem investigators are facing right now. >> jay, really quickly here, and maybe you can help me. one of the questions that continues to loom large here, any sort of connection between the shooter and that school, do we know anything more about the connection there? >> reporter: only thing that we know that is sol sid that he attended school there, when he was a young child he went to sandy hook there. are indications that his mom may have volunteered at the school, but, again, that's not been confirmed by officials with the school district, and what they have said is that she never worked there, which was reported early on in all of this, so the only firm connection we have at this point, craig, is that he attended the school, and as far as a motive is concerned, you heard everyone asking about that, that's going to take weeks, if not months. >> nbc's jay gray for us from newtown, connecticut thanks, jay. in about 15 minutes president obama is -- there is president
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obama. president obama has landed in newtown, connecticut. he's just landed. actually he's landed at bradley international airport in connecticut. he will go from there to newtown, connecticut, where, again, he's going to be meeting with grieving families, also going to spend some time talking to first responders and will be attending a vigil this evening around 7:00 in newtown. nbc's white house correspondent kristen welker traveling with the president. good evening to you. >> reporter: craig, good evening to you. it's about a 75-minute drive here to newtown, as you mentioned. president obama will be meeting with victims, family members, as well as first responders. when he has met with people who are suffering in the past in these types of situations, he's spent a lot of time visiting with them, craig, comforting them, talking to them, asking them about memories of their loved ones. he's often referenced the importance of memories in the grieving process, so i expect he'll spend quite a long time with the family members this evening. remember, craig, we are talking
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about 26 family members who are still in shock and who are still in unspeakable grief. now, at 7:00 tonight, an interfaith prayer vigil gets under way here at newtown high school committee president obama will be attending that service. he will be speaking at that service. i'm told his remarks will last about 12 minutes long. in terms of the content, the white house not giving us a whole lot of information except to say that his remarks will be appropriate to this interfaith prayer vigil, that they will focus on the families, on helping this community heal. we do not expect to hear anything about policy this evening, craig. this is becoming an all too familiar and painful path for this president. this will mark his fourth time speaking in the wake of a mass shooting like this. this summer it was aurora, colorado, last year it was tucson, arizona n.2009 it was ft. hood, texas. i have looked back at some of his past speeches, and in all of them president obama really
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remembers, gives biographical information about the lives that have been taken too soon. we don't know if he'll do that again this evening but we'll use the past speeches as a guide. president obama here not only as commander in chief but also in his role as father. earlier today he attended a dance rehearsal for one of his daughters sasha, so a reminder of the fact that he is not only the president but also a father and a husband who in his own words has been watching this horror unfold from that perspective as well. craig. >> and tonight he'll play a role that, unfortunately, he's had to play far too often here of late, comforter in chief. kristen welker, thank you so much from newtown, connecticut for us this afternoon. >> reporter: thanks. >> as president obama makes his way to that tiny town from the airport, we want to once again stress what kristen welker just said, that this is his fourth time as president of the united states that he has had to visit a community that has experienced a mass shooting. my next guest, former philadelphia mayor, former pennsylvania governor, ed rendell, knows all too well how
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gun violence can tear apart communities, also an nbc news political analyst. governor, always good to have you on. >> thank you, craig. >> you've recently said president obama missed a golden opportunity in the wake of that july massacre out in colorado when he failed to press congress to ban assault weapons and outlaw those large magazines for repeating firearms, and we just found out that's precisely what was used this time around. what does the president need to do right now? what does congress need to do right now? >> well, i wouldn't even wait for the new congress. i'd try to get this congress. they are waiting for some action on the fiscal cliff. let's move and take this anger that the nation is feeling and -- and go ahead and do a couple of things. number one, reinstate the assault weapons ban, particularly the part of the assault weapons ban that bans these assault rifles, but more importantly bans the sale, importation or distribution of magazines or clips that have more than ten bullets.
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if this fellow, if lanza had had to reload eight or nine times, many of those kids could have gotten away and run out of the classroom, et cetera, while he was taking out one magazine and putting in another. it's not going to stop individuals like lanza from trying to do things, but it's going to limit the carnage. we also should get rid of the gun show loophole. >> right. >> do you know, craig, that 40% of the guns purchased in the united states, the individual does not have to go through a background check so they can be stone wacko and get a gun at one of these gun shows. everyone, including nra members, there was a recent poll by frank luntz which said 74% of nra members believe everyone should have a background check. >> why is that not the case, governor? why does that not exist? >> because the nra has created an illusion that they are going to beat you if they are against you, and i sit here as an ex-governor of the second largest nra membership state in
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the union, pennsylvania. three times i ran for statewide office. i won by 10 points, 12 points and 21 points, and the nra opposed me each and every time. they are a paper tiger, and it's time for men and women in congress to have the guts to stand up for our kids and for our people. >> so you think michael bloomberg, mayor bloomberg was right this morning, when he said that the organization's power has been overstated dramatically. >> well, i wouldn't be here. this is the second largest nra state in the union, pennsylvania, and i won statewide three times by virtual landslides. the nra was dead set against me because of the work i had done as mayor on gun control, and i won three times overwhelmingly. >> i want to talk about the other part of this thing, and that being -- again, not to speculate and not to -- not to introduce facts that aren't necessarily in evidence, but it appears as if, based on all the information that we have, the shooter was troubled mentally. how do we keep guns out of hands
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of folks like this? what can be done, if anything, legislatively? >> well, that's an interesting question because there is a piece of federal legislation that says states are required to report to the nic background system, the federal system, anyone who has had mental problems, but mental problems is not accurately defined. what we need to do is go into congress at the same time we're reinstating the assault weapons ban, at the same time we're closing the gun show loophole, and define clearly what fits into mental illness and then the attorney general can enforce each and every state to report those people to the federal background check system. it's easily done if we just get in there and do the one or two steps that are necessary to make it a reality. craig, can you, you're an extremely smart guy. can you think of one reason why a citizen, not a military or policeman, would need a clip
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with more than ten bullets in it, one reason? >> i usually don't answer questions like that on the air, governor, and the answer is no. >> absolutely not. let's go. >> i can't think of one, but for some reason there seems to be a lot -- there seem to be a lot of folks in this country who disagree with this. >> well, i -- i don't think that's true. again, look at the poll that i cited on the gun show loop home. the congress has tried to close the gun show loophole time and time again and they don't get the votes because of the nra, and yet 74% of nra members want background checks for everyone who buys a gun. >> what's the fear then? what's the counterargument? what's the counterargument? >> because the nra has on occasion been able to target some congressmen for defeat who have bucked them, and they have had some level of success, but they have also had some level of failure. in the past election, seven of the senators that they supported strongly, six of the seven lost, and most of the incumbent republicans who were defeated this time in congress were backed by the nra. but listen. polls notwithstanding, there
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comes a time and i put this in my book, there are some things worst lose for. if you don't believe, that then resign. resign from the congress, resign from the senate. if you don't believe that there are some things important enough like protecting children. >> yeah. >> if you don't believe that's important enough, then resign. >> before i let you get out of here, you've been around politics for a long time, and you have witnessed, unfortunately, your share of tragic scenes like this. there's a great deal of outrage. there's a great deal of sadness, and then two weeks later we've moved on to something else. our collective attention span in this country, unfortunately, very, very short, governor. >> i agree, and we've become very good at this drill. a mass massacre happens. everybody says how the community came together, what a great jobt first responders did, and those are true. the president comes and gives a wonderful speech, and then nothing happens until the next one. but this time i think they have gone a step too far, craig.
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it involved little children. the massacre of little children. can you imagine the horror in those classrooms as child after child was lined up, and this guy with a bushmaster rifle, automatic rifle with a high capacity magazine and didn't have to reload, killed each one of them and shot three times each. can you imagine the horror of that? i think this is going to push americans over the line, and we are going to be angry and every bit as intense as the nra is. >> former pennsylvania governor ed rendell. do appreciate your time, governor. thanks, craig. >> what can we learn from this tragedy and how can we prevent it from happening again? we'll talk about that next. [ male announcer ] this is bob, a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today.
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developing news just in to us here at msnbc as president obama makes his way to that vigil in newtown, connecticut tonight. we've just learned that the president himself is the primary author of the speech that he will give tonight. he wrote that 12-minute speech himself. vigil expected to start at 7:00 tonight. we will, of course, have live coverage right here on msnbc. back in the united states there are questions being raised in the wake of the shootings about what we can do to prevent or at least reduce the number of future incidents. i want to bring back our professor of public health and clint van zandt, msnbc news analyst and former fbi profiler. thanks for being with us. i'm sure you heard the news conference and the weaponry that was heard. >> sure sghu heard about the
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number of magazines involved, the number of bullets that he had on him, the number of bullets that the shooter had left. based on that information, what more can we glean, if anything, about the shooter and perhaps his intentions? >> well, it sounds like this shooter had more ammunition than almost anybody we've heard in recent history, and realize, again, so far this year we have had 13 mass shootings in this country, in multiple mass murders. this is such a multi-dimensional problem. you, like me, i'm getting e-mails from your listeners, people watching, but everybody has their own issue. it's assault rifles. it's high capacity magazines and mental health issues. it's conflict resolution skills, it's identifying persons in need. i got an e-mail from somebody in a town i lived in who said they had just been to a gun show, and he said there were more people at this gun show than they have ever seen in their life buying
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every high capacity magazine they could get their hands on. these are all issues, and to try to make this a single as opposed to a multi-dimensional problem, you know, congress may pass one law or something, but unless we address it, number one for the long term, and, number two, every one of these issues we are not going to help this terrible problem in our country. >> doctor, i want to play a piece of sound from "face this nation" this morning. this is new york's senior senator chuck schumer. i want to play what he said and talk to you on the other side because it piqued my interest. take a listen. >> one is to ban assault weapons, to try and reinstate the assault weapons ban. the second is to limit the size of clips to maybe no more than ten bullets per clip, and the third would be to make it harder for mentally unstable people to get guns. >> all right. it's that last point i want to ask you b.chuck schumer, senator schumer talking about what can be done or what should be done
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legislatively. how do we decide who is mentally unstable? how do we even know who is mentally unstable? i wouldn't imagine there's some sort of test that the government can administer? >> no, and we get into some very dangerous territory here. first of all, a lot of people are dealing with psychological stress and all sorts of issues from things we neurodevelopmental to nursis and i'm having trouble imagining we'd be able to create clarity in a law that would allow some sort of federal screening, though there are certain categories of people that absolutely should not be having access to weapons. >> people like? >> people with severe personality disorders, schizophrenia, a history of the kinds of mental psychological problems that have been associated with this kind of breakdown, but they are very hard to predict. there's a lot -- millions and millions of people, including in our own families, who are dealing with issues, and we
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can't -- it's very difficult to perceive of a single test that will deal with that. don't forget, this young man who was deeply, profoundly disturbed. >> clearly. >> got his weapons through his mom who was not. >> but here's the thing. we say he was deeply disturbed, clint van zandt, but clearly he was not disturbed -- he was not so disturbed that he could not orchestrate and plan and carry out these execution-style shootings. i mean, there had clearly been a great deal of planning involved in this. >> we've seen this, just like the shooting in aurora, colorado, and the shooting that we saw friday. both of these young men are described as very bright. as you know, the individual in colorado was working on a doctoral program. we're told that this young man from friday was successfully able to take college courses, but, again, you know, whether there is a diagnosable psychological problem here,
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whether we're dealing with somebody who is crazy or somebody who is schizophrenic, i think the bottom line is they are still capable of going out and doing something like this, and as the doctor suggests, the guy on friday gets the guns from his mother. the guy in portland, oregon, earlier this week stole the gun. cho at virginia tech went out and bought them, even though he clearly had psychological problems and no stops had been placed against him. we have 310 million americans. 275 million guns. it's going to be a challenge keeping guns out of those hands who would use them in a wrong way, but we've got to start somewhere, and we've got to start sometime. >> doctor. >> i just want to agree very strongly with that. we have to do what's sane and rational for a country like ours, and we have to stop the flow of these high capacity magazine clips, and these kinds of automatic weapons. they don't belong in the hands of civilians period, and even though we have a backlog and
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we'll have to deal with the consequences of that, that genie is not going to be put back in the bottle. what we need to do now is act like grownups, take responsibility, confront the nra, whatever we have to do and start having sane, rational policies that have to do with the control of new weapons of this type, new ammunition clips and so forth. we can -- we can go forward as we need to be as responsible citizens. >> doctor and clint van zandt, nbc news analyst, appreciate your time both, gentlemen. >> thank you. >> as we await the president's arrival in newtown and his speech there tonight, we are hearing from one of the heros who has elearnimerged from this tragedy next. stay with us. [ male announcer ] where do you turn for legal matters?
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they were hearing screaming out in the hall, and they were hearing more popping sounds, gunshot sounds, and the -- the sounds over the loudspeaker, and they began to get upset, and i just kept reassuring them that they would be okay, that they were loved, that their mommies and daddies would be there soon and that we had them. we had them and we would hold them tight. and they did continue to cry, but they were able to hold it together. they were -- they were amazing. >> coming up, the rough emotional terrain that many families in newtown are traveling right now helping their kids survive the mass shooting there deal with the days and the years ahead.
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so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey! people trying to make sense of this tragedy in this tiny town this. man doing something. putting up angel crosses, decided he just had to do something. he said he made the crosses yesterday. each cross represents the little angels that died friday morning. parents jammed a firehouse on friday waiting to learn if their children would be among those who safely emerged from the school. now, for many of those families who are happily reunited comes some difficult days navigating some rocky and emotional water. nbc's lester holt spent some
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time with one such family. >> these children play like they don't have a care in the world and that's the way it should be when you're 9 and 6 but things are not the way they should be nor necessarily as they appear. how are the kids going? >> they are go. they go through periods. they will be typical kids, you know, being silly or fighting, and then all of a sudden my daughter will get serious. >> reporter: the siblings were among those led to safety from sandy hook elementary after the shooting stopped. >> last night was tough. she was in bed, and she kept saying i can't get it out of my mind when she was leaving the school that she had seen some bodies on the floor. >> ben herstam raced to the scene after he heard the kids' school was on lockdown. >> i passed my daughter on her way out of the school, and i knew he was safe and i knew my son was still in the school at that time. turns out he wasn't. already safe in the firehouse.
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>> reporter: in the firehouse there were other anxious loved ones. >> in retrospect, looking back at it, the parent that were still there, and they were waiting and the kids weren't coming. >> there's old basketball shoes. >> reporter: children busy themselves with a planned charity garage sale. let me guess, you want to be a salesman when you grow up. >> yes. >> reporter: how did you feel when you finally had the children safely in your arms knowing they were okay? >> i was trying to keep myself under control because when i got there and i first saw my daughter i started crying, and then kind of upset her and she was like, please, mommy, it's okay, it's okay so i calmed myself down and i was really trying to keep it together because she was more concerned. she didn't know where my son was so she just crying where's devon. >> reporter: how do you deal with the fact that at that age your child has been robbed of so much innocence? >> this has to become part of who they are, because they are going to live with it their entire lives. we all go through horrible
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things at different times in our lives, and it's a shame that they had to be exposed to this at such a young age and lose a part of their innocence. >> nbc's lester holt reporting. all schools in newtown will be closed tore. classes for students attending sandy hook elementary, those classes will resume on wednesday but at a different location. meanwhile, as president obama prepares to comfort families in newtown, visit like this have become all too farm during his presidency. today marks the president's fourth such visit to a community that has been turned upside down by a mass shooting. the sandy hook elementary school shooting has reopened a controversial debate over gun control, over mental health as well, but it begs the question will this tragedy be the tipping point in the fight over gun control specifically. i want to bring in some friends of the show right now, ischwab moody mills of the center for american progress, david nakamura and matt welch,
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editor-in-chief for "reason" magazine. matt, i want to start with you, i've met your 4-year-old daughter, a delightful young lady and i know your politics more than most is a bit nuanced. your perspective not to over state it, your perspective is a bit unique generally. what's your take on a discussion right now? are we talking about the right things as it pertains to -- to this tragedy? >> you know, i think that there's a -- a belief and it's somewhat wrong that we don't have this discussion. i've heard a lot of people saying on twitter it's time that we finally have a discussion about guns in society and gun laws. we actually do have this discussion, not just with every one of these just awful, you know, mind-boggling tragedies, but in general. we've had two supreme court cases, major ones in the last four years. we actually talk about gun control a lot in this country. it's just that i think, you know, we don't reach conclusions that everybody wants to hear, so it's going to be an emotional
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discussion, you know, and any time you have a political discussion after a very horrifying thing like this, there's going to be, you know, factual errors. there's going to be emotion getting the best of people, so, i mean, if there's one thing to say it would be great if everybody exhaled a little bit as they go in and try to, as hard as they can, clear their way through the facts, but it's just a very difficult challenge for people, and, you know, we're part of that process here right now. >> governor ed rendell was on a few moments ago and asked a hypothetical question which he forced me to answer on the air about the need for anyone to have a high magazine -- a high-powered magazine clip, guns that are capable of firing dozens of bullets in a very short period of time. the second amendment, of course, is always the amendment that gun rights advocates fall back on. how do we balance in this
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country, or how do we strike a better balance, or do we need to strike a better balance? >> yeah. i'm so thankful that you brought up this question of balance in the conversation in the national narratives that we've had around gun issues in general. what we should be talking about is how do we protect our families? how do we make sure that no other families have to go through as something excruciating and horrible as we say playing out in connecticut? the conversations that have been happening around the country over the last decade or two or more, thanks to the nra, have really been about protecting people's rights to own guns. it hasn't really been about protecting people's lives and livelihoods and safeguarding folks, and so i'm hopeful. i'm hopeful that with this issue, with the other mass shootings that we've seen even this week. >> yeah. >> that the conversation is going to start to change and that we're going to start to say, you know what? it's more important that we save the 34 people a day who are dying from gun violence than it is to protect a couple of people's rights to be able to hunt, for example.
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now, this conversation about whether folks should have, you know, military grade weapons in their homes to me should just be moot. i don't know why i as a civilian need to have a magazine in my house that can put out, you know, hundreds of bullets in a matter of minutes. it just doesn't make sense. i would never go to hunt a deer with that type of artillery, so i just feel like the conversation should start to shift now, and i'm hopeful that it will. >> matt, david i'll bring you in in a second, matt, should john six pack have a right to a high-powered magazine? >> they say you have an original right to bear arms, but the majority found that that doesn't preclude localities, states and cities to define what exactly is the way that they are going to interpret that in terms of style of weapon and style of ammunition, but one question to remind -- to keep in mind while we're talking about these words
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like assault weapons and military style, those tend to be pretty fuzzy on actual definition. >> right. >> and we're not even sure that the bushmaster would be affected by an assault weapons ban, so it's easy to imagine that there's a red button you can push, some legislation that would make this go away. i'm skeptical of that ability to happen, and i think we need to look at that with clear eyes. >> david nakamura, the longest you've ever sat silent on this broadcast. >> that's okay. >> we're going to take a quick break, and when we come back we'll talk about the political will in washington, d.c. or perhaps lack thereof. we also want to spend some time talking about mental health in this country, a conversation just getting started. stay with us. we'll be right back. you ever notice that some people just have a knack for giving the perfect gift?
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the new york giants honoring the victims of the connecticut shooting at their game today, the helmets displaying the initials shes for sandy hook elementary school. all nfl teams are holding a moment of silence at their games this week. late they are evening, of course, president obama will offer his own gestures of comfort as he starts to meet with families and first responders ahead of delivering remarks at a vigil tonight. again, that vigil expected to start around 7:00. we will bring it to you live here on msnbc. let's bring back aisha moodie-mills and david nakamura. david, this morning we heard from senator dianne feinstein from california saying on the first day of the session she will introduce legislation that will ban assault weapons. that ban, of course, expired back in 2004. chuck schumer saying he wants to limit access to high magazine cartridges and wants to make it
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tougher for people with mental health problems to get access to guns. is there the political will in washington, d.c.? does it exist now, and will it exist three, four weeks from now to make some sort of change? >> correct. i think that's a great question, and i think we don't necessarily know the answer just yet. when you saw president obama's reaction the other day when he came in the press room at the white house, wiping away tears, reaction beyond what we've seen from him in public, and i think it was genuine. i think, however, even his supporters might have a little right to be a little bit skeptical. he's delivered some very powerful speeches including after gabby giffords was shot, but following up with action. he said he supported on bringing a ban on assault rifles, hasn't done anything to sort of introduce any legislation or promote legislation. i think a lot of people are calling for him to react of the he reacted as a father by shedding tears and react as a president by pushing forward. i think you'll see the bills be introduced. people are looking to the white house to lead. will he say anything about it tonight, maybe not, but in the
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near future, the other question is what else is on his plate? talked about coming out strong on immigration and the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling so there's a lot on his plate and how much momentum he wants to get behind this is very interesting. >> one of the things that struck me, i think that something else perhaps that this shooting will do is lay bear the chasm that exists, people in this country with mental problems, and it's becoming clear that this shooter had a host of mental approximate but the chasm that exists between those mental problems and access to care. is that a conversation that we as a country are prepared to have right now? >> you know, i think that there is a great opportunity for the president to lead that conversation, whether he thinks that some in the country are ready to have it or not. i mean, quite frankly, we tend to want to legislation and think about policy in silos, whether we're going to talk about how to safeguard our families and protect them with guns in one bucket and then talk about, you
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know, how we're going to deal with people with mental health and another. what we have to understand is how all these issues are interrelated. when we ear talking about a fiscal cliff crisis, for example, and sequestration and how we're going to really take money out of social safety net programs, what we're really talking about is taking money away from the type of mental health services, the types of access to care, the type of funding for our educational system, that ultimately would have wrapped their arms around perhaps this young man and others who end up leading to these crises, so i'm hopeful that our conversation now will be much more robust, and what we know is that public sentiment, particularly at this time, at this time, when we're watching this crisis play out in front of us, is absolutely about something doing and having our legislators make compassionate decisions and have compassionate conversations, so i think the president does need to lead in that way. >> i want to take a quick break, and when we come back, i want to talk about the tragedy on a personal level. a quick break. come back. stay with us. we continue to pay tribute to the victims here as well on msnbc. [ male announcer ] red lobster's crabfest ends soon.
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a lone flag at half staff in a corn maze on a foggy day in connecticut. flags around this country have been lowered in honor of the victims in connecticut. they will stay that way until tuesday. a new statement just released from the family of 6-year-old jessica rekos, one of the 20 children that died, family friend jamie dunbar saying, quote, jessica was our first born. she started our family. she was our rock. she had an answer for everything and didn't miss a trick. she outsmarted us all the time and called her our little ceo for the way she thought out and
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planned everything. we cannot imagine life without her, mourning our loss and sharing our beautiful memories and trying to help her brother travis understand why he can't play with his best friend. we're devastated, and our hearts are with the other families who are grieving as we are. the flags lowered at half staff to the statement that we just got from that family there. last night's touching "snl" opening, we've seen an outpouring of support over the last 48 hours for the town of newtown, connecticut. i want to bring back our guests here. matt, let me start with you. just on a personal level, i know you have that adorable 4-year-old little girl. how have you been able to process all of this on a personal level, and have you had to explain anything to her? has she asked any questions? >> thankfully i haven't had to explain anything to her. i process it, if you can call it it, by watching or not listening
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to the news for two days because it's too awful to contemplate. no parent should ever have to bury their child, and these parents have so much courage and dignity even to wake up let alone show some composure in a beautiful statement like that. i can't fathom their pain. >> david, i know that you are expecting a child. >> yes. >> your wife is expecting. how do you handle it? >> craig, i've been sitting around the last few weeks working on nursery and doing all this. i cannot imagine what these parents go through, and, you know, i happened to be with the president on the day of the aurora, colorado shooting where they shut down the campaign. i was on air force one when jay carney, a father, came back and trying to give a briefing and he burst into tears as well. these are emotional moments, and i personally have had a hard time sort of watching all of this coverage as well, kind of like what matt said. >> aisha, has that been your strategy as well? >> yeah, ditto. i've actually been trying to avoid the coverage as well, you know. my family, my godson actually lives about 30 miles away in
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connecticut from newtown, and he's the same age, about 7 or so, and thinking about the tragedy there is really, really heartbreaking, and so what i've been trying to do and what i implore our politicians to do is really channel this pain, channel these tears in a way that's as productive as possible and think about the next steps to ensure that this never has to happen to another family. >> aisha moodie-mills, matt welch and david nakamura, thanks so much. do appreciate your time today. >> thank sdwyou. that is going to do it for me. our coverage continues from kristjan sing after a "meet the press" special on the elementary school shooting that's coming up next. first though a tribute on "saturday night live" to the victims of friday's attack. rather than open with their usual comedic sketch, the show started with a children's choir singing a very touching rendition of "silent night." ♪ silent night, holy night
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♪ all is calm, all is bright ♪ round yon virgin, mother and child ♪ ♪ holy infant so tender and mild ♪ sleep in heavenly peace ♪ ♪ sleep in heavenly peace ♪ silent night, holy night ♪ wondrous star, lend thy light ♪
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for thos...this...ions of doing throuthis...ary 1st. ...and this, dancing in their heads... ...we have these. home depot gift cards. give the gift of doing, in-store or online. this morning a special edition of meet the press." the tragedy at sandy hook elementary. even as we grieve, as we face the troubling questions about the place of guns and violence in our modern life. sandy hook is the latest and most deadly of a series of mass murders that mark our time. >> the majority of those who died today were children,
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beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. they had their entire lives ahead of them. >> how will the country respond to the most obvious but most difficult question? how do we prevent these massacres from happening? everyone has a role. political leaders, mental health experts, law enforcement. gun owners, schools and parents. >> we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this regardless of the politics. >> this morning the latest on the investigation. an exclusive interview with new york city mayor michael bloomberg who is calling for new gun restrictions. plus, a special conversation representing diverse views about the way forward. senator dianne feinstein of california, former secretary of homeland security tom ridge, former secretary of education bill bennett,